There's a whole community of devoted scribblers sprouting up around Field Notes. These small memo books, created by Coudal Partners and Draplin Design Co., fit neatly into your shirt pocket for any spur-of-the-moment note-taking needs. The suggested uses include: crop predictions, phone numbers, shady transactions, big ideas/insights and escape routes. If you're still stumped for ideas, head to the blog or Flickr group to see how everyone else puts them to use. Or just plunk down $9.95 for a three-pack and let nature take its course.
http://fieldnotesbrand.com/

This may be as close as you ever come to art directing Gary Panter. The famed artist—and former set designer for Pee-wee's Playhouse—is offering to create original drawings based on two or three words of your choosing. At $225 for a 6 x 8-in. ink drawing, it's sort of like finding a Picasso in your grandma's attic. Panter has already drawn a series of creepy crawlies based on the word "silverfish" and a Rat Fink take-off from the moniker "stagmaster." Time to break out the thesaurus and the credit card.
http://www.garypanter.com/shop_origart_01chiburi.html

Winning a National Design Award pretty much places you in the design world's hall of fame. And Scott Stowell, founder of the design office OPEN, managed to rack up this accolade while running the studio. On September 10, he'll share how he deals with everything from work/life balance and business issues to industry recognition at his New York office. It's an event from Spark, a New York organization for independent designers. Sign up for the group's e-mail list to keep up with all their happenings, including talks at design events in other parts of the country.
http://sparknyc.org/